Una Voce Russia gladly reports that Mgr. Athanasius Schneider, the auxiliary bishop of Maria Santissima in Astana (Kazakhstan), will visit Moscow and celebrate a Holy Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite (usus antiquior) there. The Mass will start on Saturday, October 15, at 9:00 AM in the historic church of St. Louis (12a Malaya Lubyanka Str.), Moscow's only and one of Russia's two Catholic churches that have never been closed during the Soviet era. It was there that, in 1926, Mgr. Pie Eugène Neveu was clandestinely consecrated bishop and appointed apostolic administrator of Moscow in an attempt to restore the Catholic hierarchy in Russia virtually exterminated by the Bolsheviks.
Commemorating the half-jubilee dates of Bishop Neveu's consecration (1926), banishment from Soviet Russia (1936) and decease (1946), Una Voce Russia with the support of the Archdiocese of Mother of God in Moscow is holding an international conference of scholars on the "Catholic Church in the USSR in the 1920s and 30s" on October 15 to 17, and the Holy Mass celebrated by Mgr. Schneider will commence this three-day event.
For all matters pertaining to the conference, please contact Una Voce Russia at secretary@unavoce.ru or see the website (Russian only):
It is the first time that a bishop will be celebrating the TLM at the church of St. Louis (and possibly in all of the present Russian Federation) since perhaps 1936 and of course since 1970.
Last year, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi consecrated an altar in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow according to the pre-Conciliar rites but did not himself offer the Mass that followed, which was instead offered by Fr. Augustine Dzenzel in the prelate's presence.
At present, in the vast country that is the Russian Federation, the TLM is offered every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month in a chapel in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow, and every 3rd Sunday in a chapel in St. Petersburg. The SSPX also maintains a monthly Mass (every 3rd Sunday) in Moscow.
Last year, Archbishop Paolo Pezzi consecrated an altar in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow according to the pre-Conciliar rites but did not himself offer the Mass that followed, which was instead offered by Fr. Augustine Dzenzel in the prelate's presence.
At present, in the vast country that is the Russian Federation, the TLM is offered every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month in a chapel in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow, and every 3rd Sunday in a chapel in St. Petersburg. The SSPX also maintains a monthly Mass (every 3rd Sunday) in Moscow.
